Gladys Aylward's One-Way Ticket

In 1932, a London parlor maid named Gladys Aylward counted out her meager savings — just enough for a one-way train ticket to China. She had no mission board backing her, no guaranteed salary, no return fare. Friends thought she was reckless. Her employer thought she was foolish. But Gladys had heard the call of the Almighty and decided that storing up security in England mattered less than answering it.

She sold nearly everything she owned, packed a single suitcase, and boarded a train that would carry her across Europe and Siberia into the unknown. In the remote mountain village of Yangcheng, she opened an inn for mule drivers, telling Bible stories each evening by lamplight. When the Japanese invasion came in 1938, Gladys led nearly a hundred orphaned children on a harrowing twelve-day trek across the mountains to safety. She owned almost nothing. She was ready to move at a moment's notice.

Years later, reflecting on her life, she said simply, "I wasn't anyone special. I just believed God meant what He said."

Jesus told His disciples not to be afraid — to sell their possessions, to keep their lamps burning, to live as people expecting their Master's return. Gladys Aylward understood this. She traveled light through this world because her treasure was stored somewhere the moths and rust could never reach.